1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a communication system for mobile device users, a communication method for mobile device users, a communication business method for mobile device users, a communication program, a storage medium storing a communication program which causes processing to be performed by computers making up a center being communicated with a portable information terminal through a wireless communication unit, a portable information terminal for communication with a center via a wireless communication unit, and a communication business center apparatus for mobile device users being communicated with a portable information terminal via a wireless communication unit.
The present application claims priority of Japanese Patent Application No. 2000-082415 filed on Mar. 23, 2000, which is hereby incorporated by reference.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a conventional communication system and communication method which provide an occasion matching service, such as an acquainting occasion service, to a user of a mobile device, the user stores, in advance, attributes including an age, a gender or a like of the user and attributes including a request for a type of occasion matching service in a computer of a center and transmits his/her present place to the computer of the center from a portable information terminal that the user carries using a portable cellular phone or a like as wireless communication unit and the computer of the center retrieves information about a place in which another user exists in close proximity to the above user and transmits a retrieved result to the portable information terminal of the user.
Moreover, another method is disclosed in which the user of the portable information terminal stores a message in the computer of the center using the portable information terminal and only other users existing in close proximity to the above user are allowed to browse the message.
However, in the above conventional communication system and communication method for the mobile device user, a match is achieved between users not only by using information about the place of the user but also by using his/her attributes including a age, a gender, or the like which have been stored in advance as information about an occasion, that is, an individual preference according to an occasion, that the user desires, in the computer of the center. Therefore, the conventional system and method have a problem in that the information required for occasion matching is made fixed, making it impossible to dynamically change contents of the occasion that the user desires with change of time or place. That is, the user, at present, may not have an interest in what the user had in the past, which means that the information about a kind of the occasion matching changes with time.
In the conventional communication system and method for the mobile device users, to keep up with such changes of the occasion matching desired by the user, re-storing of information about the occasion desired newly and presently by the user in the computer of the center is required. However, this becomes burdensome to the user because the user has to store again and again changed desires in the computer of the center.
Though the re-storing of the age, the gender, or the like of the user is easy, the re-storing of information about what kind of acquainting occasion the user desires newly or what kind of the spot the user comes to like, as attributes, in the computer of the center requires much time and labor. The re-storing also becomes burdensome to the user if the user has to store the information every time the occasion desired by the user changes. It is essential to take some of the burden off of the user using such the communication system and method of the portable information terminal.
In view of the above, it is an object of the present invention to provide a communication system, a communication method, a communication business method, a portable information terminal, a communication business center apparatus, a communication program, and a storage medium storing the communication program for mobile device users which are capable of automatically acquiring an occasion matching that the user desires while the portable information terminal is in an operating state and of implementing, based on a most up-to-date information, successful communication between users existing in proximity to each other and having similar kinds of the desired occasion matching and achieving increased numbers of successful occasion matching.
According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a communication system for mobile device users including:
a portable information terminal;
a center; and
wherein the portable information terminal and the center are communicated with each other through a wireless communication unit; and
wherein the portable information terminal has:
a place information managing unit used to acquire information about a place where the portable information terminal exists and to manage the acquired place information; and
a message managing unit used to manage the place information, an identification to identify a user and an operational behavior of the user in a form of a message and to transmit the message to the center and used to provide a message fed from the center to the user;
wherein the center has:
a message controlling unit used to transmit the message to the portable information terminal and to receive the message from the portable information terminal;
a user TPO element information extracting unit used to extract element information made up of information about a present time (T), a present place (P), and an individual preference according to a present Occasion (O) of the user from the message fed from the portable information terminal.
a spot information database used to store spot information about a restaurant and/or a sight-seeing resort made up of information about spots and explanatory contents of the spots;
an occasion learning unit used to learn a desired individual preference according to an occasion from the user TPO element information and the spot information database and to produce user TPO data made up of static information containing the identification, age, gender of the user and of dynamic information about when and where the user has visited and about what kind of spot or information the user has an interest in;
a user TPO database used to store a user TPO data produced for each user by the occasion learning unit; and
a TPO matching unit used to select spot information, when the message fed from the user includes a request for spot information, by achieving a match between spot information and the user TPO data of the user having transmitted the request message contained in the user TPO database and to request the message controlling unit to transmit the selected spot information to the portable information terminal of the user having transmitted the message requesting spot information and, when the message fed from the user includes a request for transmission of the message from the user to another user, to select the other user by achieving a match between the user TPO data of the user having transmitted the message requesting for transmission of the message to the other user contained in the user TPO database and user TPO database of the other user and to request the message controlling unit to transmit the message fed from the user to a portable information terminal of the other user.
In the foregoing, a preferable mode is one wherein the message controlling unit in the center judges whether the user having transmitted the message to the center is a user who has been registered with the user TPO database from a user identification contained in the message fed from the portable information terminal and, as a result, if the user is not a registered user, controls the user TPO element information extracting unit so as not to perform extracting processes, the occasion learning unit so as not to perform the learning processes and the TPO matching unit so as not to perform matching processes.
Also, a preferable mode is one wherein the spot information database stores advertisement information to be added to spot information.
Also, a preferable mode is one wherein the TPO matching unit adds advertisement information selected by achieving a match between user TPO data of the selected other user and advertisement information contained in the spot information database, to the selected spot information or to a message to be transmitted to the selected other user.
Also, a preferable mode is one wherein a portable cellular phone or PHS (Personal Handy Phone System) is used as the wireless communication unit.
Also, a preferable mode is one wherein the message transmitted and received between the portable information terminal and the center is an electronic mail (E-mail).
According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a communication method for mobile device users including:
a step of acquiring information about a place where a portable information terminal exists and of managing the place information in the portable information terminal;
a step of managing the place information, an identification to identify a user of the portable information terminal and an operational behavior of the user in a form of a message and transmitting the message from the portable information terminal to the center by a wireless communication unit and receiving the message fed from the center through the wireless communication unit and providing the message to the user, in the portable information terminal;
a step of managing the message to be transmitted and received between the portable information terminal and the center and of transmitting and receiving the message to and from the portable information terminal through the wireless communication unit, in the center;
a step of extracting a user TPO element information made up of information about a present time (T), a present place (P), and an individual preference according to an Occasion (O) of the user from the message fed to the center from the portable information terminal through the wireless communication unit, in the center;
a step of learning a desired individual preference according to a occasion of the user based on the user TPO element information and a spot information database storing spot information about a restaurant and/or a sight-seeing resort made up of information about the spots and explanatory contents of the spots and producing user TPO data made up of static information containing an identification, age, gender of the user and of dynamic information about when and where the user has visited and about what kind of spot or information the user has an interest in, in the center;
a step of selecting spot information, when the message fed from the user contains a request for spot information, by achieving a match between spot information and the user TPO data of the user having transmitted the message contained in the user TPO database and requesting the message controlling unit to transmit the selected spot information to the portable information terminal of the user having transmitted the message requesting for spot information and, when the message fed from the user contains a request for transmission of the message from the user to another user, selecting the other user by achieving a match between the user TPO data of the user having transmitted the message requesting for transmission of the message to the other user contained in the user TPO database and user TPO database of the other user and requesting the message controlling unit to transmit the message fed from the user to a portable information terminal of the other user, in the center.
In the foregoing, a preferable mode is one wherein the center judges whether the user having transmitted the message is a user who has been registered with the user TPO database, from a user identification contained in the message fed from the portable information terminal and, as a result, if the user is not a registered user, does not perform a step of extracting the user TPO element information, the step of learning the desired occasion of the user and of storing the user TPO data for each user into the user TPO database and the step of achieving a match among the user TPO data.
Also, a preferable mode is one wherein the spot information database contains advertisement information to be added to spot information.
Also, a preferable mode is one wherein, in the step, taken by the center, of identifying the user based on the user identification of the message fed from the portable information terminal through the wireless communication unit and of achieving a match between the user TPO data and the spot information database or the user TPO database, advertisement information selected by achieving a match between user TPO data of the selected other user and advertisement information contained in the spot information database is added to the selected spot information or to a message to be transmitted to the selected other user.
Also, a preferable mode is one wherein a portable cellular phone or PHS is used as the wireless communication unit.
Also, a preferable mode is one wherein the message transmitted and received between the portable information terminal and the center is an E-mail.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a communication program which causes processing to be performed by computers making up a center being communicated with a portable information terminal through a wireless communication unit,
wherein the portable information terminal includes:
a place information managing unit used to acquire information about a place where the portable information terminal exists and to manage the acquired place information; and
a message managing unit used to manage the place information, an identification to identify a user and an operational behavior of the user in a form of a message and to transmit the message to the center and used to provide a message fed from the center to the user; and
wherein the center has:
a spot information database used to store spot information about a restaurant and/or a sight-seeing resort made up of information about spots and explanatory contents of the spots;
a user TPO database used to store user TPO data produced for each user; and
wherein the processing includes:
(a) a step of managing the message to be transmitted and received between the portable information terminal;
(b) a step of extracting a user TPO element information made up of information about a present time (T), a present place (P), and an individual preference according to a present occasion (O) of the user from the message fed to the center from the portable information terminal;
(c) a step of learning a desired individual preference according to an occasion of the user based on the user TPO element information and a spot information database storing spot information about a restaurant and/or a sight-seeing resort made up of information about the spots and explanatory contents of the spots and producing user TPO data made up of static information containing an identification, age, gender of the user and of dynamic information about when and where the user has visited and about what kind of spot or information the user has an interest in;
(d) a step of selecting spot information, when the message fed from the user contains a request for spot information, by achieving a match between spot information and the user TPO data of the user having transmitted the message contained in the user TPO database and requesting that the selected spot information is transmitted by the message managing step to the portable information terminal of the user having transmitted the message requesting for spot information and, when the message fed from the user contains a request for transmission of the message from the user to another user, selecting the other user by achieving a match between the user TPO data of the user having transmitted the message requesting for transmission of the message to the other user contained in the user TPO database and user TPO database of the other user and requesting that the message fed from the user is transmitted by the message managing step to a portable information terminal of the other user.
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a communication business method including:
a step of holding and managing, in a center communicating with a portable information terminal by a wireless communication unit, a spot information database used to store spot information about a restaurant and/or a sight-seeing resort made up of information about spots and explanatory contents of the spots and a user TPO database storing, for each user, user TPO data including information about a time, place, and individual preference according to occasion of the user;
a step of extracting a user TPO element information made up of information about the time, the place, and the individual preference according to the occasion of the user from a message transmitted from the portable information terminal of the user and received by the center and obtaining the user TPO data containing a present place, and/or a desired individual preference according to a present occasion of the user and automatically updating the user TPO database; and
a step of retrieving spot information from the spot information database, when the message received by the center contains a request for spot information, and obtaining spot information having best matching conditions in terms of time, place, and individual preference according to occasion of the user and providing the obtained spot information to the portable information terminal of the user.
According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a communication business method including:
a step of holding and managing, in a center communicating with a portable information terminal by a wireless communication unit, a user TPO database storing, for each user, user TPO data including information about a time, a place, and an individual preference according to occasion of a user;
a step of extracting a user TPO element information made up of information about the time, the place, and the individual preference according to the occasion of the user from a message transmitted from the portable information terminal of the user and received by the center and obtaining the user TPO data containing a present place, and/or a desired individual preference according to a present occasion of the user and automatically updating the user TPO database;
a step of setting a presence or an absence of a desire for acquainting an individual preference according to an occasion, as a profile of the user, in the user TPO database; and
a step of retrieving the user TPO database, when the message received by the center contains a request for transmission of a message to another user or a request for acquainting an individual preference according to an occasion matching and selecting the other user having best matching conditions in terms of time, place, and individual preference according to occasion of the user and providing the message transmitted from the user to the portable information terminal of the selected other user.
In the foregoing, a preferable mode is one wherein the user TPO database holds, for each user, the identification of the user, profile information made up of information about personal information of the user, place information of the user, operational information of the user, and information about movement of the user.
Also, a preferable mode is one wherein the user TPO database and the profile information of the user stores personal information about a name, an address, a gender and an age, information about key words indicating information in which the user has an interest and information about a presence or absence of a desire for acquainting an individual preference according to an occasion and wherein the operational information of users contained in the user TPO database stores a spot identification of spot information requested by the user, a time when a request for the spot information was made and a place where a request for the spot information was made, and wherein the movement information of users contained in the user TPO database stores a spot identification of spot information related to spots where the user has visited and a time of the visit.
Also, a preferable mode is one that wherein includes a step of extracting the user TPO element information made up of the time (T), the place (P), and the individual preference according to the occasion (O) of the user, when a request for transmission of a message from the user to another user is contained in the message transmitted from the portable information terminal of the user and received by the center from the received message and obtaining user TPO data made up of information about a present place, and/or an individual preference according to a present occasion of the user from the extracted the user TPO element information and selecting the other user having best matching conditions in terms of time, place, and individual preference according to occasion of the user by retrieving information from the user TPO database and then transmitting message information fed from the user to a portable information terminal of the other user.
Also, a preferable mode is one wherein the other user having best matching conditions in terms of time, place, and individual preference according to occasion of the user having transmitted the request for transmission of the message is selected out of users for whom a desire for acquainting an individual preference according to an occasion has been pre-set in the user profile information contained in the user TPO database.
Also, a preferable mode is one wherein the spot information is made up of guidance information including, at least, one of a character string, image, voice, or moving picture.
Also, a preferable mode is one wherein advertisement information is added to spot information and/or message information to be transmitted from the center to the portable information terminal.
Also, a preferable mode is one wherein advertisement information having best matching conditions in terms of time, place, and occasion of users going to receive the spot information and/or message information.
Also, a preferable mode is one wherein place information of the portable information terminal is transmitted from the portable information terminal to the center and contents of the user TPO database are automatically updated based on the message transmitted from the portable information terminal.
Also, a preferable mode is one wherein, when place information is transmitted from the portable information terminal of the user and when the user stays for a predetermined period of time or more within a spot area, it is judged that the user has visited the spot and spot information for the user is retrieved from the spot information database and, based on information about the spot in which the user is judged to have visited, movement information of the user TPO database is updated.
According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a portable information terminal for communication with a center via a wireless communication unit including:
a place information managing unit used to acquire information about a place where the portable information terminal exists and to manage the acquired place information;
a message managing unit used to manage the place information, an identification to identify a user and an operational behavior of the user in a form of a message and to transmit the message to the center and used to provide a message fed from the center to the user; and
wherein a user TPO information made up of information about a time (T), a place (P), and an individual preference according to an occasion (O) is transmitted by the portable information terminal in a form of a message to the center and the center, based on the message transmitted from the portable information terminal, updates a user database and wherein the portable information terminal receives spot information having best matching conditions in terms of time, place, and individual preference according to occasion of the user and outputs.
According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, there is provided a portable information terminal for communication with a center via a wireless communication unit including:
a place information managing unit used to acquire information about a place where the portable information terminal exists and to manage the place information;
a message managing unit used to manage the place information, an identification to identify a user and an operational behavior of the user in a form of a message and to transmit the message to the center and used to provide a message fed from the center to the user; and
wherein, based on the message transmitted from the portable information terminal of the user to the center, another user having best matching conditions in terms of time, place, and individual preference according to occasion of the user is selected by the center and a portable information terminal of the other user receives the message transmitted from the portable information terminal of the user to the center.
According to an eighth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a communication business center apparatus for mobile device users being communicated with a portable information terminal via a wireless communication unit including:
a spot information database used to store spot information about a restaurant and/or a sight-seeing resort made up of information about spots and explanatory contents of the spots;
a user TPO database used to store a user TPO data produced for each user including information about a time (T), a place (P), and an individual preference according to an occasion (O) of a user
an extracting unit used to extract a user TPO element information made up of information about a present time (T), a present place (P), and a individual preference according to a present occasion (O) of the user from a message fed from the portable information terminal;
an automatically updating unit used to obtain user TPO data made up of information about the present place, and the individual preference according to the present occasion of the user from the extracted the user TPO element information and automatically updates the user TPO database;
a spot information obtaining unit used to obtain, when the received message contains a request for spot information, by retrieving a spot information database, spot information having best matching conditions in terms of time, place, and individual preference according to occasion of the user and to supply the spot information to the portable information terminal of the user.
In the foregoing, a preferable mode is one that wherein includes:
a selecting unit used to select another user having best matching conditions in terms of time, place, and individual preference according to occasion of the user having transmitted the message from the portable information terminal of the user containing a request for transmission of a message to the other user or a request for acquainting an individual preference according to an occasion by retrieving related information from the user TPO database and to transmit message information fed from the user to a portable information terminal of the other user.
Also, a preferable mode is one wherein the user TPO database holds, for each user, the identification of the user, profile information made up of information about personal information of the user, place information of the user, operational information of the user, and information about movement of the user.
Also, a preferable mode is one wherein the user TPO database and the profile information of the user stores personal information about a name, an address, a gender and an age, information about key words indicating information in which the user has an interest and information about a presence or absence of a desire for acquainting an individual preference according to an occasion and wherein the operational information of users contained in the user TPO database stores a spot identification of spot information requested by the user, a time when a request for the spot information was made and a place where a request for the spot information was made, and wherein the movement information of users contained in the user TPO database stores a spot identification of spot information related to spots where the user has visited and a time of the visit.
Also, a preferable mode is one wherein the spot information is made up of guidance information including, at least, one of a character string, image, voice, or moving picture.
Also, a preferable mode is one wherein advertisement information is added to spot information and/or message information to be transmitted from the center to the portable information terminal.
Also, a preferable mode is one wherein advertisement information having best matching conditions in terms of time, place, and occasion of users going to receive the spot information and/or message information.
Also, a preferable mode is one wherein place information of the portable information terminal is transmitted from the portable information terminal to the center and contents of the user TPO database are automatically updated based on the message transmitted from the portable information terminal.
With the above configurations, since individual preference information that the user desires can be automatically obtained while the portable information terminal is being used by the user and, based on most up-to-date desired individual preference information, the message can be transmitted from the user to another selected user having best matching conditions in terms of the present time, the present place, and the desired individual preference according to the present occasion of the user, it is expected that a rate of reply from the other users having the best matching conditions in terms of time, place, and individual preference according to occasion is made higher and, since a possibility of actually meeting with each other increases, occasion matching among mobile users provided by the communication system of the present invention can be improved.